Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

Reigning IndyCar champion Will Power anticipates his protege Myles Rowe could be on the grid in 2025.

Power, who debuted in CART in 2005 and won his first IndyCar title in 2014, has a multi-year contract with Team Penske so could race against his protege.

Rowe started off karting indoors in an Andretti facility (a franchise from the same family behind the IndyCar team), and after moving to outdoor karting crossed paths with – and seriously impressed – Power.

In 2017 he made his single-seater debut and won in wingless cars, but lacked the budget for a prolonged presence in single-seater and stopped racing. After Power’s team boss Roger Penske took over IndyCar several years later, a Race For Equality & Change initiative was launched and Power pointed his superiors to Rowe.

Rowe returned to motorsport aged 20 two years ago in USF2000 with Force Indy, a team that is part of the RFE&C programme. He won a race, but when Force Indy moved to Indy Nxt for 2022 it left Rowe crowdfunding to stay racing.

Penske’s sponsorship helped him secure a USF2000 seat with Pabst Racing, initially on a round-by-round basis, and he maximised the opportunity by winning five races and finishing just six points short of the title.

Rowe was quick to land a USF Pro 2000 promotion with Pabst, and comfortably leads the 2023 season with five wins. Formula Scout asked Power about Rowe’s recent success.

“I still have a lot to do with his career. And he’s just killing it. Very, very happy and impressed,” replied Power. “I expect him to be in Indy Nxt next year and if he did what he did this year he’d be in IndyCar in ’25. That’s the plan, and he’s doing the business. That’s the main thing. I’m excited to see [what happens next]. Very, very, very excited to see it.”

He added: “I already do see him quite a bit. We talk, I’ll call him and see him at the track and he’s a pretty smart kid. He’s got to understand how tough it gets once you start getting to these upper levels. Because the further up you get, the better the drivers are, the tougher it is. And in particular, when you get to IndyCar now, that is extremely hard.”

Power has raced karts while in IndyCar, and launched his own karting brand in 2020. That project has now stopped.

“I don’t sell [the chassis] anymore. I think they’re using the name in Australia, still selling it there, but I don’t have anything to do with it. I actually race a different kart brand. The reason is I just did not have time to do a good job with that stuff. I had to be fully committed to racing and I just had to let it go.”

It was handed over to Billy Vincent, McLaren’s director of competition for IndyCar, and he “turned it into the MPG brand and team”.

The post Will Power thinks Myles Rowe could be in IndyCar by 2025 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Chris Dittmann Racing’s Nico Varrone was the top scorer at Silverstone in the iRacing-based BRDC British Formula 3 Esports series.

Varrone made a great start from pole in race one, and after breaking the tow he was untouched up front.

Douglas Motorsport’s Ulysse De Pauw passed Hillspeed’s Oliver Clarke for second place at the start of lap two, and was similarly unchallenged for the rest of the race.

Clarke lost another spot to Fortec Motorsports’ Johnathan Hoggard on lap nine of 11, but didn’t have to worry after that as the top four were way clear.

Louis Foster won the battle for fifth at the final corner of the race after a late battle with 2014 IndyCar champion Will Power. The former British F3 racer qualified fourth but spun off on lap one and had to climb his way back up from 13th.

A crash involving Tom Gamble (Fortec), Nicolai Kjaergaard (Carlin) and Piers Prior (Lanan Racing) at Club brought Power up to seventh after three laps.

He set fastest lap in his pursuit of the cars ahead, passing Lanan’s Bart Horsten at Brooklands and then Foster at Copse with a move he’d set up at Brooklands. Double R driver Foster responded at Club, and it took until the final lap for Power to draw alongside again.

Power made his move down the Hangar Straight, but Foster put his nose in on the entry to Club chicane. In response Power went way wide on the switchback, and he bounced over the FIA Grade 1 sausage kerbs as he returned to track. The lack of balance span him around, handing Foster fifth and also dropping him behind Horsten and Fortec’s Ben Hingeley.

Prior jumped from fifth to first ahead of team-mate Joshua Mason on the dramatic first lap of the reversed grid race two, with Carlin’s Enaam Ahmed and Douglas’s Harrison Scott flying up from the back of the grid to third and fifth.

After Mason received one of iRacing’s slowdown penalties on lap two he fell into the clutches of sixth-placed Power, with Prior having already established a comfortable lead.

Scott, racing with a recently broken wrist that required adapting his simulator to (literally) left-hand drive, passed Ahmed the next time around and the top three kept their distance for the rest of proceedings.

Power twice claimed fifth from Kjaergaard, the first time with a clean move at Brooklands, and lightly tapping his opponent into a spin at Village on the second attempt.

It took just as long to clear Mason, setting up a move at Brooklands and only completing the overtake on the exit of Maggotts. He then backed Mason into Hoggard at Stowe, which resulted in that pair crashing at Club after Mason’s car got loose.

Horsten therefore took fifth behind Power, with Varrone coming from last on the grid to finish sixth. Kjaergaard, Hoggard and Mason salvaged seventh, eighth and ninth, while BRDC British Formula 4 race-winner Jake Dalton avoided the chaos for 10th.

The post Nico Varrone and Will Power star at Silverstone in British F3 Esports appeared first on Formula Scout.